On the same night that the White Sox shelved Dick Allen for the season, they lost to the Tigers to hit 59-69, their lowest point in the season. Tanner and Hemond wrote off the season and made the decision to give more playing time to fresh faced rookies like Brian Downing, Jerry Hairston, Bill Sharp and Bucky Dent to see what they could produce.

In mid-August, around the time the Sox were sinking further down in the standings, the Minnesota Twins surprised the baseball world by asking waivers on their veteran pitcher Jim Kaat.

Kaat had been with the Twins since 1959, when they were the Washington Senators (he had made his big league debut against the Go-Go Sox that year) and along with Harmon Killebrew was the last of the original Senators still...

By this point in the season, the White Sox resembled a boxer contending for a championship title-after he has stepped in the ring brashly confident of victory, gotten in a few early licks on the champ, then in later rounds starting taking hard shots that left him woozy and on the verge of defeat, about to absorb the 1-2 combo from the champ that would put him out for good. On this date, the wobbling, out-on-their-feet 1973 White Sox were dealt the knockout blow....

Stan Bahnsen stood on the mound, nervously toeing the rubber. The crowd of 13,728 was cheering for him, despite the fact that the game was in Cleveland. There were two out in the bottom of the 9th and the sagging Sox, 58-66 at this point, were winning 4-0. This was no ordinary shutout, however. Stan had not surrendered a hit to the Indians all night. His ex-teammate Walt Williams stepped into the batter's...

The Sox limp into August at 52-53 and get more bad news. Dick Allen played in two more games but was limping and in pain. An attempt by Allen to take batting practice on the 3rd ended with him hurting. Tanner finally told him to stay off the leg until it was better, no matter how long it took, saying there was no use jeopardizing his career to rush him back. Ken Henderson had his ongoing knee issues as well. The possibility...